Writing fiction is like making bread. You need to know when to knead it, and when to just let it rise. — The other day, I took a break from my writing desk and went into the kitchen to make bread. There’s something therapeutic about the process of mixing flour and yeast and water, combining it, then turning it out onto the table to knead it into shape. When I write, sometimes…

In a world obsessed with conversation, physical books bring us solitude and freedom. — Several years ago, I attended a talk by the Canadian poet Erín Moure. She talked about poetry and translation and writing. It was a talk so full of brilliant insights that, as I jotted things down in my notebook, I struggled to keep up. …

Myanmar helped me come to terms with grief. Now I am grieving for Myanmar. — I arrived in Yangon for the first time in January 2017, my life broken into pieces. The previous year had been punishing. In August, Elee, my partner of thirteen years, died of breast cancer. Before her death, we talked about what I would do after. I said I didn’t know…

Lucretius, the Roman poet and philosopher, on free will, creativity and the mysterious swerve of an atom. — The Philosopher and the Love Potion If you were to trust Saint Jerome — and you probably shouldn’t — the philosopher and poet Titus Lucretius Carus, better known simply as Lucretius, met an unfortunate end. The philosopher-poet was born some time after 100 BCE, a Roman citizen, and he became a follower of the atomism of…

Is drunkenness the enemy of philosophical sobriety? Or are there circumstances where drunkenness can make our philosophical insight keener? — Philosophers Behaving Badly? The philosopher Simone de Beauvoir was a big fan of philosophising while drunk. Along with her sidekick Jean Paul Sartre, De Beauvoir partied hard, with the full commitment you might expect given her existentialist tendencies. In this, she was part of a long tradition of philosophers who drink. …

The Huainanzi, a fascinating Han dynasty guidebook for rulers, on resonance, non-action, charioteering, and how not to fall off a bicycle. — The Many Voices of the Huainanzi In the year 139 BCE, Liu An (劉安 179–122 BCE), the scholarly-minded King of Huainan, wanted to ingratiate himself to his cousin once removed, the Emperor Wu of Han. So he did what any self-respecting scholar king would do. Anxious to demonstrate his usefulness and his political nous, he convened…

Is philosophy a kind of play? Is it a kind of combat? Or is it a kind of aesthetic experience? — Two Men, Fighting You don’t notice it at first. The two men are fighting it out with big sticks. One has blood streaming down his face. He lifts his arm to bring his cudgel down hard on his opponent’s head. …

When the going gets tough, it‘s good to read philosophy out loud. — 💡 This is the fourth in a seven-part series on how to read philosophy. Read the earlier pieces on reading Napoleonically, reading haphazardly, and reading self-interestedly. The Silent Reader There’s a story that Saint Augustine (354–430 CE) tells about his meeting with Ambrose, the bishop of Milan. When Augustine turned up in Milan…

Ptolemaïs of Cyrene, the ancient philosopher, and what she can teach us about the art of music. — Learning to Play At the moment, I’m endeavouring to improve my rudimentary jazz piano playing. It’s a long process: I’ve played on and off for years, without really getting any better. So this year, now I’ve been reunited with my keyboard, I’ve been trying to put some more time in, hoping that I…